Is Your Slow Hotel Website Costing You $100K Per Year or More?

June 13, 2017, Santa Clara, CA – Milestone Inc. today announced the publishing of breakthrough research on hospitality website performance. Milestone compared over sixty-five websites developed by 4 of the leading providers of website design and development services in the hospitality industry. The results of this research are detailed in our new research report: Breaking speed records: How Milestone websites compare to their competitors. The results of the research showed conclusively that Milestone websites consistently outperform their competitors on several key fronts:

Milestone websites load faster: On average, Milestone websites loaded up to 128% faster than the four competitors.

Milestone websites are not as resource heavy: A typical Milestone website was found to be nearly 200% smaller than the competition.

Milestone needs fewer files: Milestone websites were found to need 113% fewer files than the competition.

Finally, Milestone websites were “ready” faster: in measuring latency, Milestone websites were found to be over 2,000% faster than the competition.

“The need for speed in website design may not be as obvious in an age of high speed internet and 4G LTE,” said Walter Paliska, VP of Marketing for Milestone, “the truth, however, is that speed has never been more important,” continued Mr. Paliska.

In fact, Kissmetrics data shows that 40% of visitors are likely to abandon a website (mobile or desktop) if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Google’s research backs this up as well. Their findings highlight that more than half (53%) of mobile visitors will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, and each 1 second delay in website response means a 7% drop in conversions.

“Website speed is directly related to whether visitors will stay on your site and whether they will do anything on it once they are there,” said Mr. Paliska. Research firm StatisticBrain estimates the average US full-service hotel books about 240 rooms per month. A hotel with an average daily room rate (ADR) of $150 per night could lose as much as $120,000 per year in revenue simply because of a slow website.

According to research by Google, the average US travel and hospitality website can take as much as 10.1 seconds to load – an excruciatingly long time in an age where consumers expect instant load times and experiences that feel “native.”

“At Milestone, we have always focused on beauty and performance,“ said Mr. Paliska, “A gorgeous website is great, but it’s of little use if 70% or 80% of users won’t wait around for it to load.”

About Milestone

Milestone is a leading provider of digital marketing software and services for hospitality, retail and finance. We provide a full range of solutions including website and mobile design, content creation, SEO, analytics and competitive intelligence. Our best in class technology and solutions drive revenue and ROI for clients across the globe. Over 2,000 companies do business with Milestone, including leading hotel chains, major retailers and financial services companies. Milestone has garnered over 300 awards and a reputation for blending outstanding design with advanced technological capabilities. Milestone is one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s fastest growing companies and is an Inc. 5000 company.